INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCHOLARLY ACADEMIC INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY
VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1, 2012
Compliance Theory and Organizational Effectiveness
Fred C. Lunenburg
Sam Houston State University
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ABSTRACT
According to compliance theory, organizations can be classified by the type of power
they use to direct the behavior of their members and the type of involvement of the
participants. In most organizations, types of power and involvement are related in three
predictable combinations: coercive-alienative, utilitarian-calculative, and normativemoral. Of course, a few organizations combine two or even all three types. Nevertheless,
school officials who attempt to use types of power that are not appropriate for the
environment can reduce organizational effectiveness. Schools tend to be normative
organizations. According to this logic, oppressive use of coercive and utilitarian power
with teachers and students can be dysfunctional.
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Types of Involvement
Etzioni (1975, 1997) developed an innovative approach to the structure of
organizations that he calls compliance theory. He classifies organizations by the type of
power they use to direct the behavior of their members and the type of involvement of the
participants. Etzioni identifies three types of organizational power: coercive, utilitarian,
and normative, and relates these to three types of involvement: alienative, calculative,
and moral (see Figure 1). This figure, while grossly oversimplifying the relationships,
helps to make clear the pattern among the components. It should be noted that life in
organizations is much more complicated.
Coercive
Alienative
Utilitarian
Normative
Types of Power
X
Calculative
Moral
Figure 1. Etzioni’s compliance types.
X
X
Types of Power
Coercive Power
Coercive power uses force and fear to control lower-level participants. Examples
of organizations that rely on coercive power include prisons, custodial mental hospitals,
and basic training in the military.
Utilitarian Power
Utilitarian power uses remuneration or extrinsic rewards to control lower-level
participants. Most business firms emphasize such extrinsic rewards. These rewards
include salary, merit pay, fringe benefits, working conditions, and job security. Besides
many business firms, utilitarian organizations include unions, farmers’ co-ops, and
various government agencies.
Normative Power
Normative power controls through allocation of intrinsic rewards, such as
interesting work, identification with goals, and making a contribution to society.
Management’s power in this case rests on its ability to manipulate symbolic rewards,
allocate esteem and prestige symbols, administer ritual, and influence the distribution of
acceptance and positive response in the organization.
Many professional people work in normative organizations. Examples of such
organizations are churches, political organizations, hospitals, universities, and
professional associations (such as the American Association of School Administrators,
National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of
Secondary School Principals, and National Education Association). Public schools
probably fit this category for the most part, although there are vast differences in their use
of power to gain member compliance, particularly the control of pupils (Lunenburg,
1984).
Types of Involvement
All three types of power can be useful in obtaining subordinates’ cooperation in
organizations. However, the relative effectiveness of each approach depends on the
organizational participant’s involvement (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). Involvement
refers to the orientation of a person to an object, characterized in terms of intensity and
direction. Accordingly, people can be placed on an involvement continuum that ranges
from highly negative to highly positive. Etzioni suggests that participants’ involvement
can be broadly categorized as alienative, calculative, or moral.
Alienative Involvement
Alienative involvement designates an intense, negative orientation. Inmates in
prisons, patients in custodial mental hospitals, and enlisted personnel in basic training all
tend to be alienated from their respective organizations. However, in the case of military
personnel undergoing basic training, the ultimate goal is adherence to the organization’s
values (Champoux, 2011). Identification with underlying values helps military recruits
reconcile personal discomfort caused by their membership in the organization during
boot camp (Lalor, 2011). Personnel learn to accept the organization’s values and place
trust in the organization not to hurt them. This may lead ultimately to the graduate’s shift
to moral involvement (Goldish, 2011).
Calculative Involvement
Calculative involvement designates either a negative or a positive orientation of
low intensity. Calculative orientations are predominant in relationships of merchants who
have permanent customers in various types of business associations. Similarly, inmates in
prisons (“rats”) who have established contact with prison authorities often have
predominantly calculative attitudes toward those in power.
Moral Involvement
Moral involvement designates a positive orientation of high intensity. The
involvement of the parishioner in her church or synagogue, the devoted member of his
political party, and the loyal follower of her leader are all moral.
Relationship of Power to Involvement
According to Etzioni, when an organization employs coercive power, participants
usually react to the organization with hostility, which is alienative involvement.
Utilitarian power usually results in calculative involvement; that is, participants desire to
maximize personal gain. Finally, normative power frequently creates moral involvement;
for instance, participants are committed to the socially beneficial features of their
organizations.
Some organizations employ all three types of power, but most tend to emphasize
only one, relying less on the other two. Power specialization occurs because when two
types of power are emphasized simultaneously with the same participant group, they tend
to neutralize each other.
Applying force, fear, or other coercive measures, for example, usually creates
such high-degree alienation that it becomes impossible to apply normative power
successfully (Lunenburg, 1983). This may be one reason why using coercive control in
gaining student compliance in schools often leads to a displacement of educational goals.
Similarly, it may be why teachers in progressive schools tend to oppose corporal
punishment (Bulach, Lunenburg, & Potter, 2008).
Conclusion
Compliance theory is an approach to organizational structure that integrates
several ideas from the classical and participatory management models. According to
compliance theory, organizations can be classified by the type of power they use to direct
the behavior of their members and the type of involvement of the participants. In most
organizations, types of power and involvement are related in three predictable
combinations: coercive-alienative, utilitarian-calculative, and normative-moral. Of
course, a few organizations combine two or even all three types. For instance, some
teachers’ unions use both utilitarian and normative power to gain compliance from their
members. Nevertheless, school officials who attempt to use types of power that are not
appropriate for the environment can reduce organizational effectiveness. Schools tend to
be normative organizations. According to this logic, oppressive use of coercive and
utilitarian power with teachers and students can be dysfunctional.
References
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schools: A comprehensive approach to school reform. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield.
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organizations. New York, NY: Routledge.
Etzioni, A. (1975). A comprehensive analysis of complex organizations (rev. ed.). New
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Etzioni, A. (1997). Modern organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Goldish, M. (2011). Marine Corps: Civilian to marine. New York, NY: Bearport
Publishing Company.
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Written while knee-deep in the mayhem of Parris Island. Bloomington, IN:
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practices. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage.